CU adds team format to its summer camp menu

BOULDER — One of the first things current Colorado men’s basketball coach Tad Boyle did five years ago when beginning his first college head-coaching job at Northern Colorado was to set in place plans for a summer team camp.

He’s at it again.

For the first time in years, CU will host a boys team camp. It’s scheduled for June 3-5 for grades 9 through 12.

Previous Colorado coaches had various summer camps, but not in a team format.

CU coach Linda Lappe also has scheduled a team camp: June 24-26, for girls in grades 9 through 12.

“We’ve got a new practice facility going up, and we want the coaches around the state and their players to play in it,” Boyle told me. “Being the flagship university of the state, we want to have a team camp. We want to get young men on our campus. And not so much for recruiting, but we want to expose our basketball program and facilities and staff.

“It allows you to get kids on campus, it allows you to show your facilities, it allows you to build relationships with coaches. It’s important to have one.”

Boyle said during his last summer at UNC (2009), his program hosted more than 100 teams. His first team camp had about 25.

“I don’t know how big it will be our first year (at CU),” he said. “I think quality is more important that quantity.”

Boyle and Lappe have the usual smorgasbord of camps, in addition to the team camps.

For males, Boyle has an individual camp (June 13-16) and an shooting camp (June 17) for boys ages 9-17. The June 3 elite camp is for boys entering grades 9 through 12 this fall.